Late Night Shopping
by ProudDyspraxicWriter
Summary: When Strickland runs out of bread, he runs to the supermarket with no idea who he might meet. Strickland/OC.


Late Night Shopping

**Thursday, 3****rd**** February, 1977**

The car slowed down and crept up the drive, where it was finally parked. A tremendously exhausted Mr. Strickland clambered out. He'd been working late again and he was wrapped up in filing or shredding his papers that he didn't realise what time it was. By the time he arrived home, it was almost half past ten, and William was starving. He marched through the front door, removed his coat and shoes and headed straight for the kitchen. That evening, he was in the mood for a good, warm cup of soup. He hadn't had it in ages! He opened up the cupboard and picked up a large tin of vegetable soup, which was his favourite. He opened it with the can opener and he poured the contents into a pot on the stove. Then while it began to heat up, William decided to make the toast. But as he looked into the breadbin, he realised there was no bread.

" Oh, damn!" he muttered. He'd been meaning to purchase more, but because workload at the school was being doubled, he completely forgot about it. And there was no need to call up Louie or Rupert just to get them to run his own errands for him.

Knowing his dinner would be all right to be left alone for a few minutes, William slipped his shoes back on, grabbed his keys and dashed out to the 24-hour supermarket just down the road. Even it was quite late to be shopping, the supermarket was reasonably busy. He clucked his tongue and rolled his eyes. It wasn't that it was a bad thing, William was a loner. He preferred the company of his own and he craved the peace and quiet, and that particular evening, there was quite a bit of noise. Trying not to be seen, he sneaked in through the automatic sliding doors and went immediately to the aisle where the bread was shelved. When he got there, let out a moan of annoyance and he rolled his eyes with vigour. There was one loaf left and a woman was eyeing it up. He raced to its side and he grabbed it at the exact same time the woman did.

" Give it!" the tired, hungry principal snapped.

" Hey, whatever happened to 'ladies first'?" the woman barked.

" I have soup on the stove."

" Well, I've gotta make a sandwich," she replied sarcastically. Then she looked up and recognised the man she was arguing with instantly. " Mr. Strickland! Oh, I'm sorry. Take the bread," she pleaded.

William frowned. " Do I know you?"

" Uh, Judy Clements," she stammered nervously. " I used to go to Hill Valley High School in the '60's. Remember? I got an award for 100% attendance."

The image of a young girl in a ponytail came to him. He'd met thousands of young students throughout his career and he only remembered the well-behaved students, the ones who were likely to succeed in life, and he rarely encountered people of that kind. " Miss. Clements! Of course! You were a brilliant student if I recall."

" I was. My friends were the delinquents and they were sent to your office a lot. They told me how mean you were, so I tried my best to steer clear of any trouble," she admitted, trembling with fear. Despite the fact that she was in her thirties, Strickland still frightened the life out of her.

" Oh, yes. I remember now. So what are you doing now? You went to college, didn't you?" he asked.

" Actually, I dropped out. It was OK, I guess, but it just wasn't for me. You know?"

Disappointment struck the principal hard in the face. His personal favourite part of the job was seeing his former students going off in the world with the skills they would need. " Oh, well. That's too bad. So, what _are _you doing?" he asked.

" I work in a hair salon. I'm a hairdresser," she answered, still slightly worried that she might say the wrong thing and she'd end up in detention.

" Oh," he replied, feeling oddly embarrassed. " Well, I suppose you're married now? With a couple of _slackers_ running around?" he asked.

Judy shook her head. " No. I never married," she muttered sadly.

William tried his hardest to mask a small smile, but it won. He opened his mouth and blurted out, " What? A beautiful young lady like you? Those men need to get their eyes checked!"

Judy laughed, her eyes sparkling as her cheeks turned the colour of beetroot. " Mr. Strickland!" she cried. When he complimented her, she made her think that perhaps her old principal wasn't as bad as he initially appeared to be. She gave him a soft and flirtatious pat on the arm.

" What? What did I say?" he responded, not realising what he'd just said.

" Thanks for the compliment, Mr. Strickland, but you're wrong. I'm not beautiful."

" No, no, no, no, no. You're lovely young woman, Judy Clements, you're good, you're smart, you work hard at what you want. _Any _man would be lucky to go out with you." Where were these words coming from? This wasn't Mr. Strickland.

" Even if…he is…he _was_ my high school principal?" the woman asked nervously.

" What?" William yelled, the surprised hitting him in the gut. The last time he was asked out by a woman, he was still married to his ex-wife, Angela, who he divorced in 1952!

" I know it's a little forward, but would you like to come back to mine for a cup of coffee or…?"

" Soup?"

She laughed again and she felt completely at ease now. Thinking about it, William had always been cute in an ugly kind of way. Forgetting all about buying the loaf of bread, the pair walked out with their arms linked as they reminisced about Judy's years at the high school. They approached Judy's car in the car park outside and she drove her newfound acquaintance to her measly little flat that was located ten minutes away, where she cooked a warm meal for him as they continued their four-hour discussion about the 1960's.

" I could never understand the appeal in The Beatles, to be honest," William admitted, slowly sipping his fifth glass of wine of the evening.

Judy gasped theatrically, hiding behind her glass. " What? They're a fantastic group! They're _so _talented! John Lennon is _so _gorgeous!" she gushed, jokingly fanning her face to illustrate the ridiculousness of how some girls reacted to them.

William gave a hearty chuckle and then went on to say, " They're just a bunch of pretty boys with weird hair."

" Oi, shut it!" cried Judy through laughter and gave him a playful slap on the arm.

As he watched her knock back her head, still giggling like it was going out of fashion, William couldn't help but feel something exciting and rare. Her eyes were large and blue and _so beautiful_. Her hair was dark, wavy and long. Her smile was wide, comforting, welcoming and warm, like he could spend the rest of his life in her company. There was something inside telling him not to let this girl go. He knew it was wrong to date students, even former ones, but Judy was different. Instead of running away, William scooted closer to her. Judy's laughter ceased and the smile began to fade from her mouth, not entirely what Mr. Strickland was about to do. Softly, he cupped her face and leant forward and gently caressed her soft lips with his thumb. She let out a sharp breath in surprise. Knowing it was heading for the wrong side of right, she enjoyed the attention her old principal was giving her. She braced herself for the impending open-mouthed kiss. The couple closed their eyes, letting themselves in fall in love with this tender moment. They parted only to lock lips again. William ran his fingers through her hair, curling it up at the ends with the tips of his index and middle fingers, while his other hand was wrapped her waist. Judy had her hands clamped to William's face and she never wanted to let go. Once they were finished, breathless, euphoric and aroused, they smiled at one another.

" W-would you m-m-mind missing sc-school tomorrow?" suggested Judy as she fought to contain a grin.

William didn't answer. He stood up, straightened his jacket and held out his hand. Smiling, Judy took it and they went to the bedroom to share a night of fire.

The next morning came in slow, the sun rising slower than it ever did before. It was nearly six o'clock when William emerged from his deep slumber. Stirring lightly, he rolled over to his other side and released a loud yawn. He blinked a few times to wake himself up and finally, grinned at the sleeping woman beside him. Judy was beautiful. Soft, inaudible breaths passed her lips as she lay on the back with an almost smile on her face. William smiled to himself, knowing he had something great in this woman. He sat up, revealing his bare chest, and caressed Judy's cheek. She wriggled, waved her hand into front of her face, murmured and slowly awoke. Her eyes fluttered open. Automatically, she smiled at William.

" Morning," he whispered.

" What a night!" Judy answered, stretching her arms.

" So much better than soup!"

Judy grinned again and playfully shoved the pillow in his face.

" Hey! It's true," Strickland mumbled somewhat sheepishly.

" Oh, yeah!" she sarcastically cried. " Sex is better than soup. Well, that's no-brainer!" She sat up, covering her torso with the duvet. Then she chose to be serious. " But I liked it. We should do this again some time."

William cracked a smile and chuckled. " Yeah, we should," he agreed, nodding.

Realising how she'd phrased it she cried, " That's not what I meant!"

" Yeah, yeah. I knew what you meant. I liked it, too. You know I haven't dated _anyone _since Angela, so this is all new to me," he confessed.

She raised her eyebrows. " Well, you seem to know what you're doing. So I suggest keep on doing it." She stroked William's bald head and kissed him on the forehead. " Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?"

He nodded. " All right. How does seven sound?"

She nodded in response. " That'd be great!"

Suddenly, William felt childish. For fun, he went to pounce on Judy and started to tickle her until she was screaming with laughter. Then when she calmed down, William was still on top of her, pinning her down. He pressed his lips against hers, repeating last night's performance.

A few hours later, after she'd dropped him off at his house, he went inside in a great mood. Remembering that he still had soup on the stove, he walked into the kitchen to see if there had been any damage done to the room. He switched the gas off and saw that the pot had been severely burnt. The soup had hardened and was stuck onto the pot's interior. But did he care? To him, it was symbolic. A new relationship was on the horizon and it wouldn't have happened if he'd decided to have something else for dinner. As a silly memento or reminder, he kept it, knowing this relationship would grow.

**Yes, I know. Strickland and sex. Not a pretty picture! That's what you get when you listen to Berlin's Take My Breath Away on repeat :|**


End file.
